ARTICLES

What Shocks UCSD

Graphic Photos from Both Sides

By Allyson Smith

Justice For All, a traveling exhibit on abortion, visited the University of California San Diego May 14-15 during the school's Sun God Festival week.

Consisting of full-color abortion photos juxtaposed with images of human development from conception to old age, genocide photos, scientific statements, questions and answers, the exhibit was displayed on Library Walk in front of the Geisel Library.

(Geisel Library is named after "Dr. Seuss" children's book author Theodor Geisel. His widow, Audrey, is a major supporter of Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties.)

About 15 volunteers, some from San Diego and others from Wichita Kansas headquarters, manned the exhibit during its two-day stay at UCSD.

Chula Vista pro-lifer Phil Magnan explained the impact on UCSD students during a May 15 interview:

"We're talking to people about sexuality, and about how important it is for people to have sex only within a marriage, and they're asking 'Why is that?' and I'm saying, 'Think about it, you have so many partners in your life. How many people, how many diseases are you going to get? How many children are you going to have out of wedlock, and it creates confusion, and families are broken?'

"It's amazing that a lot of people have never seriously thought about all of this," said Magnan. "The staff is exceptional in their Socratic method in which they draw out of people, asking questions in a respectful manner and affirming right answers from people.

"We're not expecting people to change their minds now," continued Magnan. "We know for a fact that these people will be chewing on this information for days to come.

Alice, a 20-year-old ethnic and gender studies major from Sacramento who is also a member of UCSD's Queer People of Color, said, "I just think that, right or wrong, there should be the right to choose.... I believe that everybody should have the right to decide for themselves."

Pre-medical major Mir Harris, 18, said, "It's very disturbing to have these pictures showing the negative side [of abortion]. They want to show pictures of cute little families that kept their babies, but this is the real world and that doesn't happen. I know a lot of people for whom abortion was their only choice; the only opportunity they had was to bring a child into this world and not be able to care for it. I think if they're showing these pictures, they should be showing crack mothers with their babies on the street suffering and trying to keep the habit.... It's a choice. It shouldn't be brought into this world if it can't be taken care of. It's not killing or slaughtering."

Brandi Linton, 20, a biracial political science major, said she did not understand the display's comparison with racism and genocide. "My friend was here yesterday, and she was debating with one of the [anti-abortion] activists, and he gave an example of a black man raping a white woman, and she didn't want to keep it. It should have been anyone. If a white male raped a white woman, it should be aborted. I just didn't see why they are comparing this to genocide. Genocide is a whole different aspect of abortion."

When asked if they were aware that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a racist, Harris and Linton answered, "Yes."

Said Harris, "I think everything is based on morals. I think people are just doing everything based on religion. How do you know when the fetus has a soul? How do you know that it's not a human being?"

Justice for All director Tammy Cook of Wichita said, "We travel to about eight to 10 campuses per year. We have a truck and a trailer that we store the exhibit in, and we travel with it."

When asked about student reaction to the display, Cook said, "There was a woman here earlier this morning who came up, and she was yelling at us and upset that this was here. She started to walk away, and I said something to her, and she came back. She did this six or seven times, kept coming back. She took our brochure and ripped it in half and threw it on the ground. But the sixth or seventh time she came back, she had calmed down and was starting to listen. At first she wouldn't listen to anything I had to say, but she did finally start to listen. I know she was still upset when she left, but I think that her demeanor had changed just a little bit.

"We see that happen a lot," continued Cook. "The way that we work with the students is we show them that we're compassionate and we understand that this is a very upsetting issue. We agree with them that it is disgusting. It is disgusting to look at, and we say if it is so disgusting, why do we allow it to keep happening in our country, 4000 babies every single day?"

Dean Covalt, 30, president of the Justice for All student group, said that the event was "mellower" than he expected. "We had all the normal reactions, like people riding by yelling 'I like to eat babies.' One student had her shirt up exposing her breasts while talking to one of the volunteers."

Covalt said that after the exhibit, "I got an e-mail from one person berating me for bringing the photos out and subjecting the students to them. She called the pictures appalling and was disappointed that the university students were subjected to this misrepresentation of abortion. I responded that the photos are real, and that while she might find it appalling and disappointing for students to be subjected to these pictures, I find it more appalling and disappointing that young children are being killed."

Attorney Jim Spencer described the problems Justice for All encountered from UCSD administrators while trying to set up the display the first day. "Dean's student group reserved four spots on Library Walk well ahead of time. We showed up Wednesday morning and set up in two of the four spots, and were told we only had one spot reserved. They tried to get us to take down our exhibit down at the other end (near Price Center), and we had about three or four rounds of discussions before they finally agreed to allow the exhibit to remain where it was, where the students had requested that it be placed."

UCSD assistant vice chancellor Carmen Vasquez said, "What we're basically talking about is freedom of speech and First Amendment rights, and so we have opposing positions -- pro-choice and anti-[choice] positions."

The pro-choice position Vasquez referred to was a nearby table promoting "safe sex" and condoms manned by members of VOX, a pro-abortion student group affiliated with Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The VOX display included several large pornographic photos of male and female genitalia, including penetrative sexual intercourse, in full view of passersby.

When asked why such an obscene display was allowed on Library Walk, Vasquez defended it, saying:

"The understanding and the interpretation of the policies that I have as they pertain to California state law is that with regard to protection of freedom of speech, when it's in context politically or educationally oriented, that it may take place. And so, it's politically opposed to the [Justice for All] exhibit and it's educational."

Shortly afterward, a man approached the table and began yelling at the VOX students and Vasquez about the offensiveness of the display.

On May 30, UCSD spokeswoman Dolores Davies said that the obscene display was allowed according to the "opinion of our legal counsel" and that the decision to permit the photos was "guided by the U.S. Constitution and the California penal code. Section 311-A of the penal code defines obscene matter and defines when a university can censor speech. Under that definition, the photos legally do not fall under the definition of obscene material."

Lee and Covalt are looking forward to next year. Said Lee, "We're coming back again next year, but probably earlier in the year so we don't have to compete with the Sun God Festival. We're going to do SDSU at the same time. We are opening an office in Los Angeles; we have one staff person right now. We just want to be part of a network that will be a witness to the community, especially to the university community. Our goal is to build that staff and work with other interested people and groups."

To view the exhibit online or for more information, visit Justice for All's website at www.jfaweb.org. To help the UCSD student group, e-mail Dean Covalt at dcovalt@ucsd.edu.

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